Posted by Helen on: 05.28.2008 /
About a week ago I used my credit card to pay for the orthodontist, then about half an hour later it was denied at the grocery store.
I know from experience that our credit card company locks the account the moment they suspect fraud. This is good since our card number has been stolen a couple of times.
I knew from past experience they would have called me right after it happened and sure enough I had a voice-mail message by the time I got home.
So they blocked it because my husband used it in Mexico City, once, to buy a couple of T-shirts for the children while he was briefly there on business.
What fascinates me is, they’ve never blocked it on his brief, frequent business trips to other parts of the US, or Europe or Japan. Only Mexico City. Somehow there seems to be a presupposition in there about where legitimate card users and illegitimate users would be. Am I reading too much into this?
Comment by: Leo
1 05/28/08 7:09 AM | Comment Link |Reading too much…yes and no. “Good” companies now make decisions concerning your spending habits, based on past actions. When something appears out of place, they block the transaction. Example - we recently moved to a small town, where I accepted a new pulpit. My wife tried to shop in a local dollar store for basics - light bulbs, TP, etc. Her card was rejected - embarassing, as the “New Pastor’s Wife’s Card was REJECTED!!!” I called - their response was they had no indication we lived there, nor any reason to be there, so assumed it was being misused. This from a card used worldwide (former Air Force flyer). So…is there presupposition - yes. Legitimate - in their eyes, yes. Right? Don’t know…
Comment by: Unorthodoxology
2 05/28/08 8:28 AM | Comment Link |I think Leo’s explanation is more scary than the presupposition theory. Card companies deciding and knowing what is *normal* for you.
Comment by: David H
3 05/28/08 10:15 AM | Comment Link |I don’t know that it is scary, but certainly stupid. The card companies know your spending habits and they have a lot of data regarding illegitimate uses. They put all of that together in a sort of risk analysis matrix and then issue blocks based on triggers in that grid. Sometimes those blocks are good, sometimes they are not.
However, there are several stupid things at play here. First, the matrix they make is rather weak and not particularly intelligent. Perhaps Google, with their expertise in algorithms should go into that business (seems there might be some crossover and a need). However, then we would be facing having them know all of our purchases and program marketing according to that. Hmmm, would that be worse than the stupid card company tele-marketers calling me with offers for all sorts of crap? Dunno.
The other stupid thing is that credit card companies could make the cards far more secure or very little cost. Smart-card technology, which a micro-chip embedded in a credit card, is far more prevalent in other countries than the US. Card companies complain about the cost, but some estimates are that for $0.25 per card they could virtually eliminate card fraud, which would easily offset that rather modest cost. These cards would operate like EasyPass or ExxonMobil SpeedPass, which don’t require swiping to be read.
However, that might force other tradeoffs. In Finland, where they use smartcards for mass transit, they must have an ombudsman to protect people from unnecessary surveillance. Because the cards don’t need to be swiped to be read users can be tracked throughout their transit system every time they pass a reader (kind of like Minority Report).
No benefit, it seems, can come without some cost. But if Google were running credit card companies, they might actually offer to pay people to accept unwanted solicitations or to open their purchasing habits to the scrutiny of advertisers. What a world that would be.
Comment by: Walking Away
4 05/28/08 10:40 AM | Comment Link |Interesting….I would call and flat out ask your credit company how they determine fraudulent use. It does seem odd, but they must have some criteria they go by (one would hope)
Comment by: Helen
5 05/28/08 6:50 PM | Comment Link |David, yes, I heard about the Smart-cards since my relatives in England had their credit cards upgraded to those.
Walking Away, acquiring some facts would take all the fun out of guessing! Seriously, it would be interesting to hear if how they determine it but I hate calling companies and having to navigate my way through the touch-tone, voice-activated (that sucks because they are never programmed to understand my UK accent) system, then “please hold - all our customer service representatives are busy” for an indeterminate time, then I get someone who wants to transfer me and I go through it all again…” and not knowing if I’ll get anyone who would know the answers…I spend too much of my time on calls like that I need to make to take on any voluntarily.